Pentagon Reluctantly Admits Russian ‘Incremental Gains’ In Eastern Ukraine

With just days to go before the United States gets a new Commander-in-Chief with Trump’s inauguration on Jan.20, the Pentagon has made a rare admission, acknowledging that Russian forces are basically dominating on the battlefield in Ukraine.

The Pentagon during its daily press briefing on Monday acknowledged Russian forces’ “incremental gains” in the Donbass. Below is from the question and answer transcript: 

Q:  And then a completely different topic — can you give us an update on the Ukrainian battlefield? Does Putin indeed have the upper hand right now?

PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY MAJOR GENERAL PAT RYDER:  Well, what we’re seeing on the battlefield is that, especially in the East, Russia has made some incremental gains. Of course, it’s very tough fighting, as well as in the Kursk region as well. But when you talk about the upper hand, of course, tactically, again other than those incremental gains, what you’re seeing strategically is that again Russia has not achieved any of Its strategic objectives that it set for itself almost three years ago.

This does seem to be a Department of Defense admission that yes, Putin does have the upper hand in the war, despite the Pentagon spokesman’s reluctance to fully put it in these terms.

Russia’s state-run TASS news has summarized these significant gains as follows:

The Russian Defense Ministry reported on January 6 that Russian forces had liberated the city of Kurakhovo in the Donetsk People’s Republic. The cities of Avdeyevka and Ugledar were liberated in 2024. Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov said on December 16 that Ukraine’s overall losses in the course of Russia’s special military operation had amounted to nearly one million troops.

As for the mentioned immense casualty toll, this is impossible to verify. Both warring parties have an interest in inflating numbers of war deaths on the other side. 

The start of this week has seen reports that Russian forces have captured the the village of Pishchane, which is merely five miles southwest of the strategic Donetsk city of Pokrovsk. In other locations Russian troops are said to be just within a mile of the outskirts of the city.

Reuters on Monday said a Ukrainian coal mine in the area has ceased production as the war encroaches. “They have all stopped working now,” an industry source said of workers at the mine shafts in Pokrovsk.

“There’s no production there, they’re only working on the surface,” another source said, citing an ongoing evacuation of the mines and the emergency halt in operations.

Below: Watch the Russian military’s steady progression in the Pokrovsk area stretching back to the first week of August:

The Russian military has been making slow but steady advances on Pokrovsk since the summer of 2024. It represents a last big Ukrainian stronghold, the capture of which will ensure Russia’s hold over the whole of Donetsk. It would also give Russia the ability to cut off the E-50 highway connecting Pokrovsk to the Dnipropetrovsk city of Pavlohrad. This would be a major blow to the Ukrainian army’s logistical operations.